Sugar, Ah honey honey - you are wicked man - the man from NYPD Blue!!!!!!
- I am Cooking: Mud cake
- Books I am Reading: Exile's Return by Feist
- TV /DVDs I am Watching: CSI MIami Vice/CSI YMCA crossover episode
Wow, last night on NYPD Blue there was a highly unusual use of the squeezy bottle of honey!! I thought for a minute I was watching SBS!!!! Here is a really easy recipe for truffles to give as a gift at Christmas :
500 g chocolate
180 g unsalted butter
2 tspn flavouring.
The flavouring should match the chocolate , eg
- white choc and vanilla or Cointreau
- milk chocolate and Coffee liqueur or strong coffee
- dark chocolate and brandy or Galliano
Line a thin bar tin, or a small square tin with baking paper.
Chop butter and chocolate and place in double boiler over simmering water ( I use a heatproof Pyrex glass bowl) Stir constantly till melted and smooth. Remove from heat and add flavouring. Chill at least 3 hours. Cut into cubes. It can be dipped in toasted coconut, or silver cachous for the white, rolled in cocoa or drinking chocolate or brown sprinkles, eg for the darker ones. Cut into squares – makes about 24.
An update on the knitted nativity – all the figures are made and I have only one arm left to sew on before I can add all the accoutrements. There is hair, there are turbans ,veils, beards, lanterns, caskets and all kinds of things. I intend to add some beads and feathers etc too. They are very cute.
I am making a chocolate mud cake for Pauline’s brother’s birthday. I will make 2 smaller ones and join them together rather than one big one as it is more difficult to cook the larger cake evenly. Mud cakes must be moist and squishy!!! I have to write ‘Happy Birthday Richard’ in white chocolate too!!!
My new ‘jogging’ radio is quite good, it receives the ABC AM station way up at the dam amidst all the hydro technology and giant gorges and dam walls. There is a little interference, but it means I can listen to AM the show and Tim Cox and not miss out on the political news!!! I also spent a good 20 minutes looking for the new secateurs, which I couldn’t find as they were still upside down in the packet!! I did 15 minutes of blackberry and ivy pruning!! ( Blackberries are like British brambles I think, I don’t know what they are in America) The Labradors played and we emptied the paddle pool and refilled it with clean water and they had a frolic under the hose too. They are worn out as they had a play AND a walk all before 9 o’clock. I am so tired of the mobile people messaging me that I have recharged my phone early. It is $30 for 6 months on my prepaid mobile phone. This is incredibly cheap. They introduced the new rate for people like me who hardly ever use their phones. At one stage before this I had over $100 in credit so this is much more economical. Tonight I am going to Di’s for tea as Mark is in hospital and Amanda back on the mainland. I might make her something with a coffee flavour as she like this and no-one else does. I must remember to put in a tape for Kat & Kim as it is the last episode. I am feeling very tired and pale lately. I might start taking the multi-vitamins again and see if that help. I was quite pale on Tuesday. At the Hospital they said you can tell I have dogs as when I check to see how pale I am I look at my gums, just like you do in a dog. Another cup of tea then , and back to the Nativity!!!
Here is my Hover Car Racer review I posted on the Library site!!!
Think ‘Hover Car Racer’ : Think ‘Spy Kids’ ; Think ‘Star Wars’ : Think ‘Alex Ryder’. This exciting book by Matthew Reilly combines all the best elements of these fictional stories. In the near future all cars are powered by magnetos drives, harnessing the magnetic forces of the Earth, and a huge racing industry and spectator sport has grown up around these hover cars. Jason Chaser and his mysterious brother, Bug, own and race one such hover car, the ‘Argonaut’. Despite losing a qualifying race, Jason and Bug are offered the chance to attend the International Race School ( a school which owns Tasmania!!!) He meets a new nemesis, Xavier Xonora, and a challenging mentor, Scott Syracuse, along with feisty Mech Chief Sally. Together they take on not only the race school, but the world, all the time battling sabotage and hostile competitors. Jason and his friends soon learn that just being the best isn’t enough. This book was originally written as an 8 part e-serial online, but it loses none of the excitement or suspense, reading like a non-stop action comic. Although obviously targeted at a ‘young adult’ audience, anyone who has already enjoyed Reilly’s other books will thoroughly enjoy reading ‘Hover Car Racer’ and finding the in-jokes and allusions.
